Friendly AI

Upon hearing that the New York Journal had published his obituary in 1897, Mark Twain is said to have written to his brother-in-law, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” In the case of THQ? Unfortunately, not so much. By now you’ve likely heard the news of THQ’s ongoing financial issues, their bankruptcy filing last month and their rather dizzying spiral through the bankruptcy process, culminating last week in the auctioning off of their most prized assets to their former competitors. Well loved and successful franchises like Saints Row and Company of Heroes along with renowned developers Volition and Relic now have new homes. For all intents and purposes THQ is no more.

A year ago I stumbled onto DJ Molloc’s clever new covers for video games, taking a page from the Criterion Collection covers. I got inspired and made some of my own (posted further down). Today I got the urge to make some more. So here they are. (Click for full size.)

Look at this place — I go on holiday for a week and everything falls to pieces! Well, I’m back, and while I was gone I finally finished reading Dmitry Glukhovsky’s post-apocalyptic novel Metro 2033. (Remember back when I posted my initial impressions?)

So now that I’m done, I can finally say: Wow. This is a really magnificent

When I learned several months ago that the game Metro 2033 was based on a novel, I raced to order the book. Then I learned that the English translation would not be released until the same day of the game launch. I placed my pre-order, got it two days later, and now I’m racing through it. I’m about halfway done, and I’m very impressed.

March has been another great month for games, but now it’s time to see which of these games have been on our radar acording to Metacritic. It has been an interesting month to see who comes top and I think people will be shocked to see which games beat which.

Who will be top, will it be Battlefield or Final Fantasy XIII? One thing I do know, it won’t be Prison Break.

Set in the shattered subway of a post apocalyptic Moscow, Metro 2033 is a story of intensive underground survival where the fate of mankind rests in your hands. In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age.

Well the reviews are in and what are they saying?

The game is averaging 80 so far at Metacritic from 25 reviews, with the highest being 95 and the lowest being 69.